Funding targeted at raising London teaching standards

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has divulged details of the first funding awarded under a scheme designed to help staff in teacher jobs in raising pupil attainment.

The £24 million London Schools Excellence Fund (LSEF) has been set up, with financial support from the Department for Education, to raise the quality of teaching in the capital's primary and secondary schools.

It is geared towards improving pupil attainment in core subjects - literacy, numeracy, science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM subjects), and languages - through evidence-based, school-to-school and peer-led activities, and school partnerships with organisations like universities and businesses.

Now Mr Johnson has revealed that 30 schools and education organisations have successfully applied for almost £7 million of financial support through this fund to support their own initiatives for raising teaching standards.

This first round of LSEF grants could potentially reach up to 1,000 London schools, involve approximately 8,000 primary and secondary teachers, and improve schooling for around 250,000 children.

Mr Johnson explained that while many London schools have shown substantial improvement in recent years, too many of the city's children still leave education with poor grades and skills, and in some cases without being able to read or write properly.

He asserted: "We want even more schools to stretch their children and be ambitious for their future.

"That's why we're making £24 million available for high performing schools and institutions to share their knowledge and expertise with other schools, to raise expectations, bring academic rigour, and improve attainment for more pupils."

Initiatives funded in this round of LSEF awards include the establishment of the London Centre for Languages and Culture to provide high-level professional training for 127 west London language teachers.

The ARK schools network has also received funding for a scheme using Singaporean maths teaching methods to raise the ability and confidence of key stage one primary teachers.

Imperial College London is meanwhile receiving LSEF support in launching a number of "Reach Out Labs" to bolster pupil performance in STEM subjects, as is the Prince's Teaching Institute for running residential schools for department heads.